Health Beat

No radiation alert at NAIA

Posted March 18, 2011 03:34:00

DJ Yap
Kristine L. Alave

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—No radiation alert has been raised at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), and arriving passengers from Japan are not subject to any special health checks, quarantine officers at the airport said Thursday.

“We don’t have a Geiger counter,” said Dr. Michiko Mindaña, a quarantine medical officer, referring to the equipment that measures radiation levels.

But he said his agency was open to the possibility of borrowing one from the Department of Health should the need arise.

Mindaña said the Bureau of Quarantine saw no need for any radiation check on arriving passengers “unless Japan itself announces a radiation alert.”

Radiation sickness, which main symptoms are nausea and vomiting, is not a contagious disease, and contact with an affected person generally does not pose risks, he said.

But Mindaña said someone with radiation sickness would have to be quarantined out of concern for the person’s health.